Fiestar's Yezi makes her solo debut with her first EP, Foresight Dream. Last year she wowed audiences on Mnet's reality show Unpretty Rapstar 2, so the anticipation of this release could not have been higher. Fortunately, she more than lives up to the hype.

ZAQ is back. Back for the attack. Or at least it would appear that way, her new single "Hopeness" being something of a furious beast with its hard and heavy beats, intense tempo and piercing piano. The beats at the beginning even remind me of Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up." They quickly shift into something that's a bit like old school techno, albeit with a fresh, modern punch, but, still, my point stands: this is not wimpy stuff.

It's been a year since Crazy, but 4Minute is back and with a whole lot of attitude. Just give the single, "싫어(HATE)," one listen and you'll hear what I mean. "I hate you!" they exclaim during the hip-hop-laced chorus, dissing cheaters and liars, who, of course, bloody deserve it. If the dubstep/EDM parts of the song sound somewhat familiar, that's probably because the track was produced by none other than dubstep guru Skrillex.

Azusa Kobayashi has a rather colorful history. According to Wikia: The Home of Fandom (http://helloproject.wikia.com/wiki/Kobayashi_Azusa), she started her musical journey as a member of the Hello! Project's Country Musume, though only for their debut single, "Futari no Hokkaido." Following that, fellow member Yanagihara Hiromi passed away and Azusa left, stating that the loss was "too great." Some time later, it was believed that she actually left because "adult" pictures of her had leaked.

It was only last November that Hong Kong singer/songwriter -- and global superstar -- G.E.M. released her latest album, Heartbeat, but here she is again already with a powerful new digital single in the form of "北京北京" [Beijing]. It was actually released back on January 1st of this year, but I only discovered it on Spotify yesterday. I was planning to write a review of something else today, but "Beijing" is such a moving song that I just had to write about it first.

Shiori Tomita was born in Takayama, Japan in 1994. Last year she released a fantastic album called Moshimo World, which was a blend of folk, J-Pop and Western pop with a splash of classical. It was very organic sounding and mellow. Well, she's done a complete 180 with her new single, "Valentine Kiss," which features Ladybeard. If you don't know who Ladybeard is, you might want to check out his interview with Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsini/2015/07/08/a-qa-with-ladybeard-....

4TE — pronounced Forte/for-tay — are everyone's favorite new Japanese pop group based out of the U.S. In fact, they're the only U.S.-based J-Pop group I can think of who deserve to have a smash hit single break Japan. (But if you know others, please alert me to them!)

"Leave A Message" begins with an answering machine picking up a few rings, just before we hear the universal voice for anyone who's ever *not* bothered to customize their outgoing message:

"Hello, no one is available to take your call, please leave a message after the tone."

I think it would have made more sense to delay this single for a few days to have made it the first Morning Musume '16 release, but, nope, for whatever reason(s) it was released on December 29th of last year, making it the J-Pop girl group's third single of 2015. But all that really matters is that it's fantastic!

The 10th year anniversary of May'n's career just ended. But, she couldn't let it pass without treating her fans to another single (her second for 2015). It's called "夜明けのロゴス," which Google translates as "Dawn of Logos," and it's the theme song for the anime series Aquarion Logos, which May'n has made music for in the past, namely the song "Yamaidare Darlin':.

Here's something you don't come across every day: an J-Pop album cover with a girl bent over like she's ready for doggy style sex. Maybe that's not what she's trying to imply, but she's certainly trying to draw attention to her rear in any case. Anyway, it might be a hot album cover, but the music is even hotter.

"I am the greatest / I make it through," sings Namie Amuro during the chorus of her spicy new single "Red Carpet." I suppose you could regard those lyrics as being very conceited. But I don't think she's trying to brag. (Even though the first lyric of the song is "I'm a VIP".) On the contrary, I feel like she's just trying to inspire her fans, to make everyone feel like they're the greatest. And this translation would seem to back up my opinion: http://shinitakashi.blogspot.com/2015/12/amuro-namie-red-carpet-english-...

After being absent from the music scene for roughly two years, Anna Tsuchiya returns with something very unexpected, an EP of covers -- in English, no less -- recorded live in the studio with a full band in the form of The Groobeees. Perhaps even more surprising is that this is billed as soul, soul being the last thing you'd expect Anna to ever do, but it's mostly just Anna's voice that sounds like soul. The actual music by the band is more like rock 'n' roll. Pretty heavy, to be sure.

"I know you're checking me out," BoA sings on the title track of her new single, Lookbook. It's her first Japanese single of 2015 but it's downright MASSIVE. What a song. Huge, EDM style beats that pound away quickly, BoA's glorious vocals, a bass guitar solo -- it's a song that splits the difference between J-Pop, K-Pop and Euro dance and it does so in a way that feels completely natural; if she set out trying to appeal to those markets, you'd never know it because it feels like she just wrote a song and it just so happened to have all of those sounds to it by coincidence.